Octopus Network, a multichain cryptonetwork based on NEAR Protocol, has let off 40% of its core staff and reduced compensation for the remainder owing to the prolonged crypto winter, which the project’s inventor Louis Liu believes would last at least another year.
The list of firms declaring layoffs in the crypto industry is growing, blaming the extended unfavorable market circumstances.
Among the newest is Octopus Network which announced a series of restructuring steps and what it dubbed the ‘Voluntary Separation Program’. As part of this initiative, 12 of the core team’s 30 employees would quit the project and be compensated “properly.”
And those aren’t the only cutbacks they’re making. According to the project founder’s statement,
“The remaining team members have agreed to take a 20% wage decrease, and the team token incentive has been halted indefinitely.”
This precaution was essential since the Web3 firms are projected to suffer a significant crypto winter blow, according to the release. According to the company, Octopus Network was created to serve Web3 apps by offering on-demand appchain infrastructure, the operating cost of which is greater than that of a smart contract on a common Layer 1 blockchain.
As a result, Liu wrote: “Because supporting an appchain requires significant resources in terms of IT infrastructure and community mindshare, the Octopus community cannot afford to onboard a large number of appchains just to lose the majority of them in a single year. This prompted me to modify the Octopus method.”
He described the NEAR blockchain and the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) as “the two centerpieces” of the new approach, with the objective of ensuring the Octopus Network survives crypto winter. IBC is a protocol that handles data authentication and transit between two blockchains. It was introduced as the Cosmos blockchain standard for blockchain interoperability in April 2021.
The Octopus team said that it is close to introducing IBC to non-Cosmos-SDK-based blockchains, and that Octopus 2.0 would “support NEAR’s position as an intrinsic element of the blockchain Internet by broadly integrating multiple appchains (Substrate or Cosmos SDK based) and all IBC-enabled blockchains.”
Get ready for a long crypto winter.
This is all part of the “core team restructuring,” according to Liu, which is required when the team “adopt[s] a modified project plan to respond to market realities.”
We are currently in a bear market, which is likely to last for some time, according to the announcement, while the future is bound to bring certain changes to the sector, especially as the sector itself is expanding, welcoming traditional financial institutions, and becoming a part of the global capital markets, albeit the riskiest and most volatile part, according to Liu.
Several things are expected to happen in the next years, including the macrocycle replacing the Bitcoin halving cycle as the primary factor in the crypto asset market, according to Liu.
However, forecasting is tough: “However, most people feel that the capital market will gradually return to risk-taking, implying that the crypto winter will continue at least another year, if not much longer. Most Web3 companies will fail “Liu penned.
He went on to warn “regular folks” who want to build a Web3 firm not to do so unless they had backing from huge institutional investors.
The creator also said that the next community call will be conducted on January 8, during which he would be addressing questions concerning the “refactoring” and Octopus 2.0.
Meanwhile, as previously reported, Singapore-based crypto trading business Amber Group has chosen to lay off 40% of its workers and cease retail operations, blaming the market slump. It also canceled a $25 million sponsorship arrangement with Chelsea FC.
Koinly, a crypto tax reporting tool, fired off 14% of its crew, blaming “the deepening bear market,” but some workers alleged in an exclusive for Coinbold.io that the cutbacks impacted more individuals and were carried out unprofessionally with inadequate communication.
Among many others, crypto exchange ByBit reduced its personnel by 30%, while non-fungible token (NFT) platform Candy Digital lay off one-third of its around 100 workers.
Compiled by Coinbold
